Since she had no faith in her ability to react like a normal person where Cooper was concerned she decided to spend the day like she had every other one since she had been there.

She just wasn’t sure if she could pull it off. 

Leaving the cozy library, she headed for the front door, wondering if her new…what?  Housemate? Intended? First? would jump out and stop her, but like her time at Patrice’s there seemed to be no locks to keep her in.  With good reason she groused to herself as she headed out the door and down the mountain.  She still had no way to get off the mountain. 

When she realized she had no idea which direction to go, besides downhill, she called out to the wolves she knew were pacing her.  Even knowing what she did about them she still felt idiotic doing it.

“Hello,” she called loudly.  “I need to get to Patrice’s cabin.  Anyone want to show me the way?”

A minute later a large brown wolf came out of the trees and chuffed at her, before turning and she hoped leading her in the right direction.  You would think as a half wolf she would have a better sense of direction, or enhances senses or something, but no such luck.  It seemed to her, when she thought about it, that the only thing that she might have gotten from that side of her genetics (If Cooper was right about her to begin with) was an overactive libido and the need to submit when the most arrogant man in the world spoke.  Not exactly super powers, she thought with a sigh.

She did not realize she had gained an entourage while she walked along until she felt something niggling on her thoughts.  Looking around she saw the pups trailing her, as they usually did when she took her walks.  It made her smile and wonder when the children would show up.  Georgie stopped as shock rolled through her when it occurred to her that they were the children. 

Holy Shit!  The words almost left her mouth for real before she made herself bite them back and calm down.  They were wolves.  She needed to deal and move on. 

She started walking again, trying to pick out who might be surrounding her and if she could put names to wolf faces.  It killed the time during the long walk down the mountain.  She thought she could pick out a few of them but she was not about to ask them and have it verified.  She needed a few more days before she was ready to see another shift.

Patrice was in her kitchen as usual when Georgie came to the back door, and something about the sight of her in her apron at the kitchen island with her rolling pin had a sense of familiarity blooming in Georgie’s chest.  Between her and the pups throwing themselves at the screen door at her side she almost felt like she was home.  Patrice looked up and smiled.

“I didn’t expect to see you today,” she said coming to unlock the screen door.  She let Georgie through, but body blocked the pups.  “No, you know better than to come in while I’m baking.  You wait for Georgie out there and I’ll give you a cookie when they are cool.”

She ignored the pathetic whimpering and shut the screen door locking it again.  She turned and studied Georgie carefully.  “It’s good to see you are none the worse for wear after your adventures.  How in the world did you make it all the way to Solitude on your own?”

Georgie shrugged.  “I floated on a log.”

“Georgie,” she gasped, her hand going to her throat.  “You could have been killed.”

“Well,” she said.  “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Patrice just shook her head and looked worried.  “I hope the First finally explained everything to you.”

Georgie blew out a breath and took a seat at the kitchen Island.  “More or less.”  She met Patrice’s eyes where she was taking up her post at the pastry square.  “I know you are wolf shifters, and that he thinks I am half of one.”

“And an Omega,” she added, then tilted her head and studied Georgie again.  “You don’t believe him?”

“I believe you all are wolves, but me?”  Then she narrowed her eyes.  “What exactly is an Omega?”

Patrice blinked, “He didn’t tell you?”  She looked confused and then shook her head.  “An Omega is a wolf shifter who is revered by the pack.  They have the ability to soothe the beast inside us.  It’s why the children have been less prone to fighting since you came, and how you were able to bring Marie out of her feral state.”  She suddenly looked sad.  “If you had not been here the First would have had to put her down before she hurt someone.  It is almost impossible to come back from on your own.  And having you here means the children will survive puberty when their wolves become harder to control.  An Omega is a gift and a blessing to any pack.”

A whole lot of things became clear just then, and Georgie started to get a little sick to her stomach.  “And Cooper knew what I was when he smelled me in San Francisco didn’t he?  That’s why he took me.”

“A First can always tell.  The rest of us had to wait until you helped Marie.  It made more sense after that why our First did what he did.  To take a wolf, even a latent one out of her own territory could be construed as an act of war if the First of that territory found out.  And Cooper has never been one of those Firsts who put his own wants above his clan.  But an Omega?” she smiled brightly at Georgie who was doing her best to hide the sick feeling in her belly.  “Future mate to our Alpha?  You and your children will be a true blessing for the whole pack.”

Before Georgie could form a sentence around the pain in her heart Phillip came bursting into the house.  “We are going to have company.  Everyone is meeting at the square.”  Phillip looked at Georgie then and his forehead puckered in angst.  “Shouldn’t you be at the big house?”

“No.”  And she meant that.  She should definitely not be at the big house.  Not when she finally understands why she was really taken, and why a man like Cooper Hayes wanted to mate with her.

The first thing she saw when she entered the square, which turned out to be the open area around the front gate where she had met up with Marie the feral wolf, was Cooper Hayes.  He looked less than pleased to see her, but she could not say she was exactly thrilled looking at him either.

He strode up to her and nearly growled.

“It would have been infinitely better if you had stayed where I put you just this one time,” he muttered taking her by the arm and pulling her toward Patrice and Phillip who stood a few feet behind her.  “Take her back to your cabin and keep her out of sight.”

“Why?” she said refusing to move when Phillip took her arm without another question.

“We have company.”

She still refused to be pulled.  “So?”  she tilted her head to the side.  “Is it the feds looking for kidnap victims?”

Cooper gave her don’t be ridiculous eyes.  “No of course not.”  Then he looked back at Phillip, who tried to pull her again, but she dug her heels in and he did not want to hurt her. 

“Well then?  Why do I need to leave?”

Cooper had apparently had enough because he took her arm from Phillip and hauled her unceremoniously toward the nearest cabin and pushed her inside.  Since it looked more like a fraternity than a home, with a flat screen tv, worn old sofa and multiple easy chairs, that, along with the mess of old food and dishes, she guessed it might be a kind of club house for the soldiers when they were off duty.  There was even a pool table towards the back by the messy kitchen.  Cooper spared the place not a glance, his eyes on her and piercing.

“I need you to stay here and out of sight while I handle this,” he said mildly enough.  But she knew an order when she heard one.  And his eyes had hardened, his cold mask firmly in place.

“Why?” she said again making him growl in frustration.  “You might as well tell me,” she said.  “Not like you have time to lock me away seeing as how you’re in such a hurry.”

He gritted his teeth until she wasn’t sure how they didn’t break under that much pressure, but he finally talked.  “The First of San Francisco is here.”

She blinked in surprise.  “That Raoul guy?  Why?”

“The only thing I can assume from his presence here is that he has somehow heard about you and is here to stake his claim.”

She thought a moment about what Patrice had said.  “Because I’m an Omega?” Cooper stilled.  And she raised a brow at him.  “Did you think just because you wanted me in the dark that no one would tell me what it meant when I asked?”

He said nothing to that and Georgie wondered why his silence, a silence that could be taken for affirmation caused her actual physical pain.  She swallowed the hard lump in her throat and raised her chin hoping she could keep the ridiculous tears from falling in front of this man.  “You could have just told me the only reason you wanted to keep me was my ability to help the pack.  You didn’t have to pretend it was me you wanted.”  She looked at him and hoped he could read the disgust in her eyes. 

He growled pulling her suddenly against him so that they were nose to nose.  His eyes searched hers before he gave her an almost smile.  The bastard.  “Why do you care why I brought you here?  You are so determined to leave, why would my reasons for wanting you even matter to you, if you feel nothing for me?”

Georgie gritted her teeth and tried not to give him the satisfaction of a reaction.  Instead she jerked herself out of his hold and glared with wet eyes.   “I’m not hiding away while you decide the rest of my life for me.  Not when you don’t give one single shit about me.”

With that parting shot and the feel of her heart breaking, Georgie turned and stormed out the door.  Leaving Cooper Hayes to follow or not as she went to meet the Raoul she had heard so much about.  And if Cooper Hayes tried to stop her she would show him exactly what this half wolf latent Omega female was truly capable of.

Strangely enough he did not put up any further fight, just cursed, growled and lengthened his strides so that they arrived at the clearing near the front gate together.  Patrice and Phillip followed behind.  After looking at the large crowd that surrounded them Georgie had to assume everyone but the children and those watching them were present.  They all waited in expectant, nervous silence as the gates opened and three shiny black SUV’s drove inside.

She had no idea what she had expected from the man known only to her as Raoul, but it was not the unassuming Hispanic man that stepped out of the vehicle with his shiny shoes and suit carefully pressed.  If she had seen him on the street she would not have looked twice.  She had no idea what color his eyes were behind his aviator glasses, but she could tell that he was on the short end of six feet, and while her First had caught her eye and kept it exuding sex and power as he did, this man was an empty page to her senses.  Not that he wasn’t handsome, he was.  But he was no Cooper Hayes.

She had wondered if she would react to all First’s the way she did to Cooper, but that fear was squashed as soon as the man Raoul stepped forward.  He invoked not a single spark, unless the yearning to hide behind Cooper could be counted against him, and as of yet he had said not a thing to make her think he was anything but what he looked.  A rich businessman slumming it in the backwoods.

It was only when he was within a few feet that she felt something for the man, and it had her moving closer to her own First without her realizing she was moving.  The man was within a foot of them when she could feel his commanding presence, subtler than Coopers but still obvious.  By the time Raoul removed his shades and hit her with that alpha stare Cooper had moved close enough to her side their arms were touching.

“I’ve come to collect what’s mine,” he said in a mild no accent voice that still managed to reek of First arrogance. 

Wow, Georgie thought feeling none of the emotions such a statement would have garnered if it was Cooper saying it.  Way wrong thing to say.  She did not have to feel the man standing so close to her side turning to steel to know he would not like that opening statement from the other man any better than she did. 

Are all Firsts assholes? 

The primitive growl that came from Cooper’s lips could be heard everywhere in the clearing. 

Yep, Georgie almost smiled at the man across from them, who until that telling reaction had been looking down his nose at her.  Wrong thing to say.

“Nothing here belongs to you,” Cooper said, that growl still in his voice.  Oh yeah, he was pissed alright.

“Are you going to tell me that the female who called me and told me you took an Omega half breed out of my territory was lying, when I can smell for myself what this one is?”  he pointed to Georgie looking at her as if she was already his to do with as he pleased. 

“She is mine,” Cooper answered sounding even less pleased, and hauling her into his side so there could be no mistaking his meaning. 

“Not according to our laws,” Raoul reminded him, eyes narrowing at the proprietary way he handled her.  “Are you really willing to risk your wolves in a war over a half breed, Omega or not?  A war that will have you on the wrong side should the council become involved?”

“She’s my mate.  What do you think I will risk for her?  Half breed or no?”

That surprised the man.  “You, a First, are going to mate with a half breed?  Even one who has Omega in her blood is not worth that.  She can’t even shift, you might as well tie yourself to a human.”

Cooper growled again, and Georgie wondered if he even knew he was still holding her.  “That has fuck all to do with it.  I’d be mating her if she had not a drop of wolf blood in her, Omega or otherwise.”

Georgie who had had enough and was about ready to tell the men what she thought of their discussing her as if she had no say at all in what happened next, froze at his words and looked at his face.  His mask had completely dropped, and he no longer looked like the arrogant First she was used to dealing with.  This was a man on the edge, his wolf too close to the surface for this to be a game he was playing.  He meant what he was saying.  He would go to war to keep her, and he would even if she was not an Omega, or a wolf at all.

“What are you doing?”  She grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the other man, or at least tried.  He didn’t budge so she whispered.  “You can’t start a war over me.”

“Whatever it takes,” he growled his nearly feral eyes meeting hers.

“You can’t risk your pack for this,” she whispered furiously.

Suddenly he was yanking her away from the others until they had at least the illusion of space.

“I need you.”

The truth behind those words shot an arrow straight to her belly.  “Because I’m Omega?” she asked quietly. Knowing it wasn’t only that.  Not the way he was looking at her right this moment.  Not with the way he spoke of his need, as if she was all that mattered.  But she waited for his answer just the same.

“Yes, the pack needs an Omega,” he gritted out between sharper than human teeth.  His hand on her arm was painful as he dragged her closer.  His eyes glowing with his inner wolf.  “But I need you.”  Every word he spoke punched her in the gut until she could not breathe.  “I will kill every one of them to keep you and war is not best for my pack.  It is the very opposite of what is best for the pack.  But you, I will not give up.  You are mine.”  Those stark words again said by this arrogant beast of a man took what was left of her resistance.

“We don’t need her here,” a voice from the back of the crowd shouted, drawing Georgie out of the trap of nearly feral wolf eyes before she said or did something embarrassing, like throw herself at him in front of everyone.  The rest of the pack parted like the red sea, anxious to escape from under the furious eyes of their first.  Stacia ignored the people around her that were shushing her and trying to pull her back.  She wretched out of their hands and stomped toward the front, her hard, angry eyes on her First and Georgie.

 Why am I not surprised? Georgie wondered watching the sway of young skinny hips as the girl moved forward with purpose.  One guess on who called the San Francisco First.